'Birthday cake roundabout' causes confusion

A junction with 36 traffic lights - dubbed "the birthday cake roundabout" - has been criticised by road users for causing "confusion" two weeks after its opening.

The "signalised" roundabout on the junction at Milton Road and Elizabeth Way in Cambridge was one of the last improvements completed in the £31.9m Milton Road Improvement Scheme.

Yet residents have said the traffic no longer flowed smoothly at the roundabout and a driving instructor has described it as "chaotic".

The Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) said: "There will be a period of on-site monitoring in order to make adjustments".

The GCP - a collaboration of businesses, councils and academia - approved the scheme in 2022 before construction began in the autumn of that year.

The partnership said there were 90 accidents involving cyclists along the whole of Milton Road between March 2013 and April 2018, so the scheme had to also be safe for parents, children and commuters to walk and cycle.

The new roundabout has two crossings at the Milton Road junction, one crossing at Highworth Avenue and one at the Elizabeth Way junction, as well as dedicated cycle lanes.

Driving instructor Sue Papworth has criticised the roundabout's "complicated" layout, which was causing congestion and consequently "a lot of anger".

"There are too many distractions by way of traffic lights," she said.

"We've now got cycle lanes that are going both ways round the roundabout [and] because of the confusion you've really got to expect the unexpected.

"We've got a signalised parallel crossing that allows people to walk and cycle across the road separately... special paved and coloured surfaces that separate the crossings and it's just too distracting.

"There's too much to look at."

She also said queues of vehicles were now much longer since the lights had been installed, instead of traffic being allowed to flow at the roundabout.

The GCP said: "Our challenge has been to develop a scheme so parents, children and commuters can have the confidence to walk and cycle along Milton Road... as well as to manage traffic flow along the road.

"There will be a period of on-site monitoring in order to make adjustments to ensure both the traffic flows smoothly, and the new pedestrian and cycle crossing points have adequate time to accommodate the many movements made at certain times of the day."

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